Water injection in which water is pumped into a hydrocarbon producing reservoir has been practiced in the oil and gas industry to maintain reservoir pressure and enhance oil recovery (EOR) at both onshore and offshore reservoirs locations. Water to be injected needs to be deaerated, i.e., removing undesirable gases such as oxygen, before injection to contain the growth of microorganisms and to prevent corrosion of underground piping. Vacuum packed tower stripping or fuel gas packed tower stripping followed by treatment with oxygen scavenging chemicals is conventionally practiced to deaerated water prior to water injection in EOR systems. Other technologies that utilize catalysts can also be employed to remove oxygen (e.g., Minox™ commercially available from Minox Technology AS, Notodden, Norway).
There exists a need for improved alternative systems and methods which provide deaerated water suitable for injection in EOR. It would be desirable to have systems and methods offering improved cost, weight and compactness for deployment on offshore platforms and vessels.